On May 20, Donetsk hosted a joint briefing of Chief of the DPR Representative Office to the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination Ruslan Yakubov, Human Rights Commissioner Darya Morozova, People’s Council deputy Elena Shishkina and Chairman of the Board of the Fair Defense NGO Vitaliy Galakhov, dedicated to summing up the results of the year of President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky’s rule. According to a correspondent of the official website of the Donetsk People’s Republic, having cited detailed data on ceasefire violations and made an objective assessment of Zelensky’s policy, the participants in the event stated that the new President of Ukraine had not led the situation to fundamental changes in terms of the commitments he made to peacefully settle the armed conflict in Donbass.
“Attacks on the territory of the Republic have been going on for the seventh consecutive year, civilians are being killed and injured, houses and infrastructure are being destroyed. Exactly one year ago, on May 20, 2019, Vladimir Zelensky, the incoming President of Ukraine, loudly announced that his first task would be ceasefire in Donbass. The new President of Ukraine had 365 days to make specific decisions and take actions. But all his ideas, which should have promoted peace in Donbas, traditionally turned out to be populist slogans.
For the first year of Zelensky’s rule, monitors of the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC registered 5,000 ceasefire violations, tanks and large-caliber artillery, which are prohibited by the Minsk Agreements, were used in about 2,000 cases. Almost 50,000 items of ammunition were fired at residential areas of the Republic. Six civilians were killed and 72 injured, 180 infrastructure facilities damaged, 49 destroyed, 973 residential buildings and 28 vehicles damaged by hostilities. Moreover, the situation has escalated even more in early May this year, almost every other ceasefire violation resulted in tragic consequences,” Ruslan Yakubov reported.
“Unfortunately, the situation in the humanitarian sphere remains difficult. The Ukrainian party categorically does not want to fulfill its obligations set out in international treaties, does not fulfill its own guarantees. We regard this as Ukraine’s complete failure to comply with the Minsk Agreements as part of the humanitarian subgroup, and Mr. Zelensky welcomes any human rights violations, including torture of our supporters in Ukrainian penitentiary institutions and law enforcement agencies,” Darya Morozova said.
“I would like to add that 15 children were injured as the result of shelling during the year. In this regard, we would like to recall that Ukraine is a party to the Geneva Convention, which clearly states that civilians must not be the object of attack. But civilians continue to suffer, and Ukrainian soldiers bear no responsibility for that. These are all war crimes. To date, we have sent more than 2,000 cases on Ukraine’s war crimes to the International Criminal Court. All cases are recorded and processed by us. All the information is reliable,” Vitaliy Galakhov added.
“The escalation of the conflict has increased, the shelling has become tougher, and the actions of Zelensky and his team run counter to the principles of international humanitarian law to protect victims of war and civilian objects. Kiev officials once again show that they completely disregard the agreement on the non-use of heavy weapons and are not going to answer for these actions. We see the deaths of our population and the destruction of our homes. Ukraine continues to ignore its obligations under the Minsk Agreements, avoids the dialogue under various pretexts and is not going to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” Elena Shishkina said.
In conclusion, the Chief of the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC and negotiation process, General Major Yakubov said that People’s Militia units had switched to a high alert status by Order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Head of the DPR Denis Pushilin.